Iterate variable for in OnBarUpdate

[jrconsole]

Hello, I'm very new to ninjatrader and C#. Learned to code in MATLAB.

With my code, I'm trying to identify and draw a cypher pattern.

Here are the pieces of my code's structure that are relevant to my question,
"
OnStateChange()
{
int PatternID = 0;
}

OnBarUpdate()
{
if (*potential cypher conditions met*) //use new bar to identify potential new patterns
{
PatternID = PatternID+1;
*Draw pattern with tag = "potentialcypher"+PatternID*
}

for (int i=1;PatternID;++i) //iterate through old potential patterns to update completion status
{
if (*cypher pattern broken*)
{
*remove drawings with tag = "potentialcypher"+i*
}
}
}
"

I identify potential cypher patterns as they get close to completion. I want to remove old patterns that never complete; this is why I have the for loop to iterate through old patterns.

I'm getting an error in the line with "PatternID = PatternID+1;" saying that PatternID does not exist in current context. Any idea why? Do I have to re-declare the integer in OnBarUpdate?

Thank you!

[NinjaTrader_PaulH]

Hello jrconsole,

Thanks for your post and welcome to the NinjaTrader forums.

When you declare a "local" variable like:

OnStateChange()
{
int PatternID = 0;
}

it is only valid with the confines of the { }.

It would be better to delcare the variable at the class level so you can easily use it in all methods. For example:

public class atr1 : Indicator
{
private int PatternID = 0; // declares PatternID as an integer type and assigns the default value to 0.
protected override void OnStateChange()
{
if (State == State.SetDefaults)
{